AI Agency Economy and RWA Drive NFT Recovery, DeFi Momentum Weakens

In the second quarter of 2025, the cryptocurrency market presents a complex situation. AI agent applications are rising strongly, RWA and gaming assets are driving the transformation of the NFT market, while the DeFi sector faces challenges of cooling financing. At the same time, the huge losses caused by security vulnerabilities also expose the fragility of the industry.

Main trends include:

• The number of daily active unique wallets for Dapps remains stable at 24.3 million, with significant growth in the AI and social sectors.
• The total locked value in DeFi reached $200 billion, an increase of 28%, but the financing amount decreased by 50% month-on-month.
• NFT trading volume decreased by 45%, but sales surged by 78%, with RWA and gaming NFTs becoming new hotspots.
• Security incidents caused a loss of $6.3 billion, with the Mantra incident accounting for a loss of $5.5 billion.

1. The Rise of AI in Social Fields, Changes in the Dapp Ecosystem

In the second quarter, the average number of daily active unique wallets for Dapps was 24.3 million, a slight decrease of 2.5% compared to the previous quarter. The activity of DeFi and GameFi decreased by 33% and 17% respectively, while Social and AI Dapps showed growth.

The InfoFi concept has emerged, with platforms like Kaito and Cookie DAO performing exceptionally well. In the AI field, agent-based Dapps are developing rapidly, with Virtuals Protocol standing out.

Among the top-ranked Dapps, an AI application has topped the list for the first time, with the rest mostly being DeFi projects. It is worth noting that the newly added "dormant Dapp" metric this quarter shows that the inactivity rate of AI applications has surged by 129%, reflecting that this field is still in its early development stage.

2. The total locked value in DeFi has increased, but financing has shrunk significantly.

The total locked value in DeFi has surpassed $200 billion, with a month-on-month growth of 28%. Ethereum still holds 62% of the market share, followed closely by Solana with 10%. Hyperliquid L1 has shown impressive performance, with TVL skyrocketing by 547%.

However, the financing amount in the DeFi sector has decreased by 50% month-on-month, with only $483 million raised in the second quarter. The total financing for DeFi in the first two quarters of 2025 is approximately $1.4 billion, indicating a cautious trend in capital allocation.

3. Structural Changes in the NFT Market: The Rise of RWA and Gaming Assets

NFT trading volume decreased by 45% to $867 million, but the number of sales surged by 78% to 14.9 million transactions. This phenomenon reflects that NFTs are developing towards a more affordable and practical direction.

The trading volume of RWA-type NFTs grew by 29%, ranking second. The trading volume of art NFTs decreased by 51%, but the transaction volume skyrocketed by 400%. Domain NFTs are back in popularity, mainly due to the development of the TON public chain ecosystem.

The average monthly NFT traders reached 668,598, a month-on-month increase of 20%. OpenSea still maintains its leading position, but the Courtyard platform has rapidly risen to second place, highlighting the influence of the RWA narrative in the NFT space.

It is worth noting that the game NFT of Guild of Guardians has for the first time surpassed blue-chip projects like CryptoPunks and BAYC, ranking among the top in quarterly trading volume, confirming the increasing importance of game assets in the NFT market.

4. Frequent security incidents, losses reach a new high since the FTX collapse

In the second quarter of 2025, the Web3 sector lost $6.3 billion due to security vulnerabilities, an increase of 215% compared to the previous quarter. Among this, 87% of the losses came from the Mantra crash event, which led to a market capitalization evaporation of $5.5 billion.

Other significant events include:

• Individual users suffered private key theft, resulting in a loss of $330.7 million.
• Cetus Protocol was attacked by hackers, resulting in a loss of $260 million.
• Nobitex exchange was hacked, resulting in a loss of $82 million.
• UPCX protocol vulnerability leads to 70 million dollars stolen

These events highlight the severe challenges the industry still faces in terms of security, requiring developers, investors, and users to remain vigilant and enhance security awareness.

5. Conclusion

In the second quarter of 2025, the DApp ecosystem is showing signs of integration and transformation. AI and social applications are on the rise, NFTs are shifting towards practical value, and RWA and gaming assets are taking the lead. DeFi remains a core pillar but is facing challenges from a cooling capital environment.

Users have not left this field, but have chosen different ways of experiencing it. The current key is to create Dapps that are both attractive and safe, in order to generate real value and promote the sustainable development of the industry.